Crisis Response Teams

Crisis Response Teams Basic pre requisites • • • •

Fairly good community participation in the programme. The need for community mobilization is driven by the community Community understands the need for enabling environment for reducing risk and accessing services. CBO annual plan includes crisis response team activities

Role of Alliance and NGO • •

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Investing time and money in Capacity building, in stages to build self esteem, address self stigma, build skills in dealing with stakeholders, negotiation, communication, leadership, working with groups etc Creating spaces/ platforms for community to meet regularly to trigger discussions around specific issues of violence, S&D by individual KPs and ways of addressing them collectively (The Core Advocacy group and the Crisis response teams meet at least twice a month to document issues addressed, share the information about the perpetrators (individuals, names, description) and the supports to develop strategies to counter violence, extortion and coercion. Initial hand holding support in meeting stakeholders, conducting and managing meetings. Address internal conflict. Appointing lawyers at each NGO trained by Lawyers Collective for supportive action to protect their human rights to freedom from violence, coercion, exploitation and rape and for legal measures to protect them from these abuses and build the legal literacy.

Design and process community driven and owned •

Using participatory tools, community consultation is facilitated between CBO, CAG (core Advocacy group) and outreach on the issues that the community faces at hotspots and the impact both on the individual and the outreach (condom distribution, one to one etc.).And who would be most suitable to address. From various options the group suggests further discussions on how collectively immediate action though crisis response teams is debated.

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In the next CBO meeting the community develops the following through deliberations, and discussions

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A name for the crisis Response teams eg RAT (Rapid Action Team, CAT( Community Action Team, EAT (Emergency Action teams)

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Community decides how many Crisis teams they would need in their site, based on intensity of issues at the hotspots. Number of Persons in the Crisis response Teams based on the KP strenght and the number of incidents at the particular hotspot. The community selects/nominates the members for each hotspot and the timings, so that at any given time there are at least two members at a ho spot The communication protocols - ways of communication that some one needs help who to call first, how to gather the other members or teams from other hotspot for additional support. List the supporters (Police, government officials, Lawyers, doctors, and NGO staff. Protocol on when and how to seek support from NGO, the Crisis response team first seeks help form CAG members at the Sit or Dist. only if they are not able to resolve a issues on their own, and the support of NGO if this fails. The community also decides on the roles and responsibility of the Crisis Response teams, and some selection criterion (should be form the hotspot, should have leadership skills etc.) The CAG members and the outreach staff collect information on the incident s of violence at the hotspots or at the weekly meeting at the NGO. The following registers are maintained by the community, CAG and Rapid Response Team minutes of meetings Incidents reports with details of the incidents, and timings

Capacity Building •

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Basic Advocacy Skills workshop – basic roles and responsibilities, Advocacy definition, Role of community in Advocacy, sharing of issues, Identifying issues, prioritizing issues, communication skills and stakeholder analysis. NGO Advocacy Plan with activities for handholding support to CAG. Advanced Advocacy Skills workshop –presentations on best practices, achievements, Visioning, Case studies, role plays, Legal issues and leadership, negotiation, and communication skills. CBO advocacy plan with support, with activities of CAG and crisis response Teams. Media advocacy skills workshop Media consultations and capacity building. Legal Literacy and legal awareness.- Appointment of lawyers at each site Awareness building on legal issues around Trafficking, and strategy to reduce pressure by Anti trafficking authorities. Domestic Violence, 377 etc.

Challenges • Leads to parochial behaviors, unless there is mature leadership. • The FSWs are less active in crisis teams, working much better in sites shared by both MSM and FSW or only MSM sites. Most crisis situations are addressed jointly.. • Suitable only for street based FSW, community needs to develop strategies on support to home based and brothel based KPs.

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Collection, documenting and reporting incidents of Violence

Impact/ Outcomes •

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Peer outreach members not being harassed at hotspots, no incident reported over last one year. Earlier the outreach workers were driven away, intimidated and sometimes even arrested for carrying condoms, condoms being the evidence for soliciting or encouraging sex. Intact the police take the help of from outreach for condoms and information on prevention. Police in Madanpalli, Ananthapur, Nizambad sites respond to call from the crisis response teams in incidents of violence form goons, and customers. In Nizambad town, the monthly outreach meeting is held at the local police station. The Crisis response Team at Hindpur help the sex worker file a case of rape against a police constable for having forced free sex and was suspended for three years. The violence, extortion and sex without condom has reduced considerably,( we need to develop methods for measuring this). The community claims that in sites where the Crisis response teams are working well, the extortion has reduced the community able to keep 70% to 90% of the earnings, against 30% earlier. The community able to negotiate better for condom usage as hotspots has become relatively safer.